Ghana has recorded a 16 per cent reduction in road crash fatalities from January to August 2022 as against the same period in 2021, the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has said.
A total of 1,615 persons died through road crashes between January and August 2022 as against 1,937 deaths recorded in 2021 within the same period.
This represents a decrease of over 16.62 per cent.
The Authority said a total of 17,272 vehicles were also involved in road crashes in 2022 whilst 18,381 persons perished in 2021 for the same period, representing a 6.03 per cent decrease.
Mrs Pearl Adusu, Head of Corporate Affairs, NRSA, said there had been reductions in all other indicators, including injuries and pedestrian knockdowns.
She disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the side-lines of a Civil Society Organisations’ (CS0s) inaugural meeting on road safety, organised by CUTS international, Non-Governmental Organisation.
She expressed satisfaction about the achievement and noted that several campaigns and interventions put in place by the Authority and partners had contributed to the successes recorded.
She said all interventions put in place must be strengthened to sustain the successes recorded.
“We realised that all the indicators have reduced marginally, which is a positive narration to road safety promotion in Ghana. And so we are encouraged by the numbers we see and we want all stakeholders to do more and work more to promote road safety. The indicators show that we are doing something positive in Ghana.
We commend the media, road agencies, Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority (DVLA), and the Police, especially, its project of parry and pie, coming into the stay alive campaign domain is helping a lot. We commend the IGP for continuing with the project.”
The Head of Corporate Affairs called for funding support to ensure effective enforcement of the “Stay Alive” campaign and to ensure an improvement in the road safety narratives.
She said as the yuletide approached, the NRSA would step up the “Stay Alive” Campaign within the media space to popularise and bring on board many more stakeholders to assist the Authority in its campaign.
“We are bringing in a lot of stakeholders, such as the CSO platform on road safety, advocates, the media, the Police and all other stakeholders in the road safety space to support the NRSA to achieve success.
Everybody’s little programme they are doing should come under the ‘Stay Alive’ Campaign while we coordinate all activities.”
Mr Daniel Wuaku, Director, Planning and Programmes at the NRSA, said despite the gains made, more efforts must be ensured to sustain awareness.
“Road accident is not palatable news, it is sad and it must awaken everybody. If we as Ghanaians will always want to wait for the Police to come and enforce the law, maybe by the time the Police arrive, it might be too late. If you want to arrive safely, you have the primary responsibility to do what is right by observing road regulations, and signs and provide safety for yourself,” he said.
Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako, West Africa Regional Director for CUTS International, noted that law enforcement agencies were not adequately resourced, which had hampered their operations for the past years.
He was hopeful that the CSO platform would influence policy to address issues affecting road safety issues as well as reduce crashes and deaths in the country.
